Trace minerals provide the essential nutrients that plant, animals, and humans need for metabolic functions such as growth and development, immunity and reproduction. Even moderate mineral deficiencies can produce severe adverse impact. It is reported that about one-third of the world human population suffers from mineral deficiencies. Thus there exists an urgent need for a field-deployable analytical instrument which can quickly detect mineral deficiencies in plant, animals, and humans.
The present invention discloses a laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) apparatus for analyzing the content and concentration of trace elements in biological samples. Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a type of atomic emission spectroscopy which uses a highly energetic laser pulse as the excitation source. The laser pulse generates a high temperature micro-plasma on the surface of the sample. After this excitation, light that is characteristic of the elemental composition of the sample is emitted and analyzed within a spectrometer. In recent years, LIBS has become a very popular analytical method in view of some of its unique features such as applicability to any type of sample, practically no sample preparation, remote sensing capability, and speed of analysis.